19 DAMS DAMAGED BY FLOODS REHABILITATED (BACK PAGE)

NINETEEN of the dams that were destroyed by the 2007 floods in the three northern regions have been rehabilitated while work is ongoing to repair more of the damaged dams and bridges.
About 30,000 vulnerable households have also benefited from food rations in the area.
The interventions were part of the Dam Rehabilitation Project (DRP) of the Market Oriented Agricultural Programme (MOAP) of the German Technical Co-operation (GTZ) in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
The support was a response by the German government to help in resettling the victims of the 2007 floods that hit the northern parts of the country.
The Deputy Project Manager of GTZ, Mr Anthony Dzatse, who was speaking during the handover of a rehabilitated dam at Manguli, a peri-urban community near Tamale, pegged the total cost of work on the dams at 35,000 euros.
The GTZ supported the people with equipment, technical know-how and food while the MoFA offered training with the people providing labour during the three-month work period.
According to Mr Dzatse, the main reason for the food for work programme was to provide needy people with food to enhance communal labour to improve livelihoods and food security.
He further explained that the food rationing was under the DRP Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty Programme.
The Northern Regional Director of MoFA, Mr Sylvester Adongo, said the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) also provided 210 pumps, vegetable seeds, chemicals and fertilisers for crop production during the dry season.
“It is heartening to report that beneficiaries are using these pumps to produce two crops in a year; it is hoped that with these interventions those farmers who lost all their investments to the combined drought and floods in 2007 will be on their own again,” he stated.
The Assembly Member for the Fooshegu Electoral Area, Prince A. A. Mohammed, expressed appreciation to the benefactors for their immense assistance and promised that the dams would help in ensuring adequate food production and security to improve the quality of life of the people.